The invention relates to the field of crack detection and especially to fatigue cracking in conductive materials, such as metals. Decal type crack detectors exist which are applied to fatigue crack substrates with an organic binder.
These decal detectors, however, often fail to fracture as a crack propagates or the conductors continue to make intermittent contact after fracture occurs. Both situations result in erroneous data. Moreover, the organic bond is not always stable in hostile environments, such as pressurized liquid or elevated temperatures.
The present invention overcomes these deficiencies of the decal type detectors by providing an inorganically bonded conductor. The geometry can be similar to those of the prior art decal type or a special geometry can be utilized.